The more than a century-old bank building at the corner of Main and...

Trolley tracks that once wound their way through the cityâÄôs downtown can be seen here on Main Street passing the Hotel Green. The tracks are surrounded by Belgian block that provided smoother transit for the horse, wagon and early automobile traffic.
Image courtesy of the Danbury Museum
Photo: / Danbury Museum, Contributed Photo

Trolley tracks that once wound their way through the cityâÄôs...

Bank Street, an events and catering business, occupies the former Citizens Savings Bank of Stamford Connecticut on May 20, 2014.
Photo: Lindsay Perry

Since the early 19th century, banks were positioned in prime locations -- the centers of commerce along some of heaviest-traveled thoroughfares in nearly every community.

As banking industry and demographics changed, those halcyon days of many financial centers have passed.

Impressive structures have been razed, making room for modern glass-and-steel office buildings. Others have survived -- some still as banks, though in most instances their names bear no resemblance to their original identities.

Though currency still may be exchanged inside the four walls, the days when staff handled customers' deposits or decided on loan applications have been replaced by the sound of waitstaff taking food orders, patients consulting with their doctors or customers making a purchase.

One of those places is Bank Street Events, which found a home at 65 Bank St., in Stamford in 1995 when it opened as Bank Street Brewing Co., one of the region's first microbreweries.

`Screaming with character'

Ted Steen, who bought the former Citizens Bank of Stamford building with three partners, said with its high-vaulted ceiling and big window, the beaux-arts style building was perfect for his new microbrewery.

"The microbrew industry was in its infancy in Connecticut," Steen said. "The building was screaming with character."

When he saw the years 1911-1913 engraved in a stone in the building, he knew it was the right home for his fledgling business, which evolved over the years into a restaurant, and is now a special events venue.

"The city grew up around us," Steen said. "There were only a handful of nightclubs and restaurants back then."

But the impressive interior continues to attract customers as they want to host special events in a setting that is hard to replicate.

"We spent over $2 million in renovations. We had to go through the Stamford Historical Society," Steen said. "You couldn't duplicate it with new construction."

Condlin recalled a building on Canal Street south of the urban transit terminal being oufitted as a Connecticut Bank & Trust Co., in the 1990s, but it never opened. Now, it is an antiques center.

A Bedford Street space has an interesting past, Condlin said, adding in the 1960s it was a clothing store and became a People's Bank in the 1970s. In the 1980s, it became Temple Bar and is now the Butterfield 8 restaurant.

"If it's an older building, they make great venues for restaurants because they are unique," Condlin said. "They have high-vaulted ceilings, and they (restaurateurs or retailers) keep the vault and call it a special dining area, as well as the board room."

Diners at Thali restaurant at 87 Main St., in New Canaan, are greeted by four substantial white pillars when they enter under the portico. A few feet to the left, the menu is displayed in a glass case above the night deposit box for the former Union Trust Bank.

Inside, customers dine surrounded by large glass windows and high ceilings.